The wooden plane, held together with piano wire, was classified as a yacht by the customs officer.

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"It smells like a dead body, " the customs officer told me, as we opened a crate of smuggled ivory in the cargo terminal at Bangkok airport earlier this year.

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The stench was intense and a customs officer said the ivory "smelled like death".

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In the Customs shed a smart officer in pressed flannels, green military sweater and beret greeted me warmly, pumping my hand.

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After the war he worked as a customs and excise officer, settling in Gourock, Inverclyde.

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But when Zapeta tried to go through airport security, an officer spotted the money in the bag and called U.S. customs officials.

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After the war and marriage to his beloved Daphne, he worked as a customs and excise officer in Glasgow, Prestwick, and Ireland before settling in Gourock, where his two daughters, Louise and Elaine, were brought up.

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"Report the truth, please, " a Libyan man standing in line told me as a Tunisian customs officer processed my passport last week.

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